Fairfax County Parkway trail continues to deteriorate

Yesterday we rode down to the Greenbriar Shopping Center on Route 50 just west of Fairfax County Parkway to check on the soon-to-be-open Dogfish Head Alehouse. The sign on the door states that it will be open this week. A private party was planned for later that day as a dry run for the upcoming opening. FABB may have a social gathering there next month.

Unfortunately there is no bike parking available. There were two bikes parked nearby, locked to trees. The owners probably work at Dogfish or one of the other businesses there. A while back we wrote to Dogfish and asked about the lack of parking and they expressed interest but there's still no parking. There's plenty of parking for cars, so we suggested creating a bike corral, taking one of the existing parking spaces for installation of a few inverted U racks.

On the return trip we rode along the Fairfax County Parkway, either in the shoulder or along the trail. The trail is getting worse. In an earlier post, wrote about the lack of maintenance on the trail. As you can see from the photo above taken near the Dulles Toll Road, the trail is still in bad shape, and none of the earlier problems have been fixed. In the second photo you can see that the grass beside the trail is growing out of control. Virginia's roads and trails are becoming a disgrace.

According to Fairfax County, repaving of the trail is a priority, but with limited funds available, it may take a while.

One issue that is not helping the quality of the asphalt is that Fairfax Water trucks drive on the trail several times a year to service water facilities adjacent to the trail between Pinecrest and Fox Mill (opposite the water storage tanks).